Norv Turner seems to leave many wanting in the area of riveting oratory. He cannot match the stylistic charm of his predecessor. He doesn’t have his boss’ overt bravado.

But it is clear that every year Turner becomes more and more comfortable saying what he believes needs to be said in his role as head coach of the Chargers.

In his annual pre-camp give-and-take with Union-Tribune Chargers beat writer Kevin Acee, Turner addresses perception and reality with his own unique blend of candid coach speak as he discusses players, the schedule, issues and, of course, the holdouts.

As he begins his fourth season, the news surrounding Turner’s team is more about who is gone than who is here. Like all coaches, Turner prefers to concentrate on the players he has. But he is philosophical about the expected absences of Vincent Jackson and Marcus McNeill. And he has a forthright message for another star the team hasn’t seen for a while.

QUESTION: I know you’re going to disagree with this, but to observers of this team — media, fans — the regular season doesn’t matter for the Chargers after all that’s happened the past few years.

ANSWER: I understand the mentality completely, but it can’t be our mentality. I don’t think there’s any player here or any coach here that takes for granted what they’ve accomplished through the last three years — some of these guys for the last four or five years. I think the people here have a great appreciation of what it is to win a football game, win two football games or go out and win 11 straight football games. It’s hard to do. You have to start at the beginning of training camp, you have to re-establish all those things to go do it again. We have to go finish the job, take that next step and do what everybody is waiting for us to do.

QUESTION: Here is something I’ve heard from people who would actually be considered to know a lot about football: There is no excuse for the Chargers to not be 6-0 when they play New England (on Oct. 24), because everyone looks at that early part of your schedule and sees NFC West, Raiders, Kansas City …

ANSWER: It sounds to me like a statement by someone who doesn’t have to coach or play in those first six games. There are too many examples of teams being beaten by anybody. It’s someone sitting from afar and has another motive.

QUESTION: So your schedule isn’t easy?

ANSWER: The first six weeks of the season? When you play in your division? When you play on the road in your division? I don’t know that anyone in the league has an easy schedule.

QUESTION: Overall, it’s kind of weird schedule.

ANSWER: It’s a little different than any schedule I’ve ever been around. Four of six on the road, then six of eight at home. The one thing about our team, there was a time you felt we weren’t good on the road, then we go 7-1 last year on the road. There was a time where, gosh, we weren’t going to lose at home, then we went through a stretch where we struggled. I think every team is different.

QUESTION: You’ve coached in a football-crazy town (Washington) and for Al Davis (in Oakland) and now you’re coaching the best team you’ve had …

ANSWER: No question.

QUESTION: There have been a few distractions around this team lately. … Do you address those things with the team at the beginning of training camp? And what’s your level of concern about things swirling around this team?

ANSWER: It’s the nature of the league. Because we’re here, you think it’s exclusive to our team. It’s not. I’ll speak again to the maturity level of our team. Our guys have done a great job of not being affected by the distractions that have occurred. When I came here it was a major change. You talk about distraction. It was a coaching change off a team that was 14-2. We’ve had to work through a lot more things than people realize, and I think our guys have always responded and handled it well.

QUESTION: You have a number of guys on your defensive line who played significant roles last season — too many to keep …

ANSWER: I like our defensive line. People talk about how you get ready for a season. We’ve got 11 defensive linemen under contract, and our guys know we’re going to keep seven. We’ve got guys who have played and been good players who are looking and saying, ‘I want to be one of the five or six that are active on game day.’ And they certainly want to be one of the seven. Someone ain’t going to be here. So that adds to the competitive level of practice.

QUESTION: How big a year is this for Eric Weddle (in his third season as the starting free safety and final year of his contract)?

ANSWER: Eric has made progress every season, and I thought he had a real good (2009) season. He’s played enough and done enough now where he should be playing good and not give up big plays, but I also think we’ll see Eric having opportunities and making big plays because of the experience and the instinct. They’ll kick in a little more.

QUESTION: You moved Tra Thomas into the No. 1 spot (at left tackle) as soon as he got here (in June). Does that continue in training camp?

ANSWER: He’s up there in age a little (35). I’m not going to wear him out in training camp. He’ll play left tackle, and (Brandyn) Dombrowski will play left tackle. There are some days Tra won’t practice, and Brandyn can work with the (first team). And we’ll see how it goes.

QUESTION: You knew we couldn’t get through the whole interview without talking about the guys who aren’t going to be here. What are your thoughts about going into 2010 without them?

ANSWER: We’re going to go have a great training camp and get ready to play with the guys who are in camp. I’d love to have Marcus McNeil, Vincent Jackson and Shawne Merriman here. But if they’re not here, I’m not going to talk about it at all. Once Day One starts, we’re going. The lesson that this team learned over the first month of last season — I re-learned it — is sometimes you think you can’t make it without a guy. All of a sudden we didn’t have Nick (Hardwick), we didn’t have Jamal (Williams), we didn’t have some guys, and over a period of time we got better. We managed to find a way. … From a mindset standpoint, if one of those guys isn’t here or all of them aren’t here, it’s not different than if in the opening game they got hurt and you have to go play.

QUESTION: What are you expecting from Merriman after a year he played through injury and almost two full years after (reconstructive knee surgery)?

ANSWER: Because of the things he’s been through, he would benefit greatly from having a full, great training camp and getting back to doing the things he does healthy. I don’t care who you are, if you’re not 100 percent … there are thing you can’t do that you used to do, you’re not instinctive. The way you get those things back is by going 100 mph and practicing.